50 Detainees To Be Forever Trapped on Gitmo’s Isle of No Return?

January 22, 2010  |  Posted by Danielle Belton

The Washington Post is reporting that "nearly 50 of the 196 detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should be held indefinitely without trial under the laws of war, according to Obama administration officials."

More from WashPo:

The task force's findings represent the first time that the administration has clarified how many detainees it considers too dangerous to release but unprosecutable because officials fear trials could compromise intelligence-gathering and because detainees could challenge evidence obtained through coercion.

Fifty. That's fifty people trapped on Gitmo's isle of no return. This is disturbing, concerning news. How did the Obama Administration decide this and on what grounds did they determine that 50 of the 196 could not be charged and tried in a court of law? The Administration didn't release many details on the ill-fated fifty and are instead just asking us to trust their judgment on a matter that runs counter to everything America claims to stand for. It flouts the rule of law leading to a troubling implication that the Executive Branch can simply hold people, indefinitely, without charge -- something that was first expressed under the Bush-Cheney Administration.

It's scary to see it resurface in this way.

From the American Prospect's TAPPED blog:

The mess Bush left for Obama on national security rivals the economic crisis in complexity. But that's no excuse for perpetuating a lawless system in which the government can imprison people indefinitely without charge, based on the unprovable assumption that they committed a crime, or worse, based on one that hasn't been committed yet. The strategic national security benefits of closing Gitmo will be fleeting if the U.S. continues to maintain a lawless detention regime.

The one silver lining in this news report is that 110 people have been determined by the task force to be not a threat at all and are recommended to be released. But there's even a treacherous flip side to that. About ninety of those individuals are Yemenis who are facing their own increasingly extended stay on Gitmo because we've halted sending detainees to Yemen. These are individuals who have been determined to not be a threat (just like the hundreds of former detainees released before them). These individuals are not being charged with any crime. If the U.S. government doesn't believe these individuals are a threat then why are we continuing to hold them?

It makes you wonder. Does our government intend to create a new category of detention where someone is held indefinitely just because of where they were born? Just because of the nationality on their passports happens to be Yemeni? By refusing to return detainees to Yemen were are creating a dangerous precedent where we make simple citizenry of Yemen a crime. Are we comfortable with that knowledge as Americans? Are we comfortable with that being the new norm against our standards of right and wrong, justice and fairness?

In holding these individuals we are arming our adversaries with a powerful weapon. Yet more evidence of hypocrisy to be exploited by those who mean us harm, to point and say that Americans may talk justice, but they don't deliver it if you're Yemeni. How will giving our enemies this tool help us win the "hearts and minds" of a public where groups like al Qaeda are trying to convince them that our war against terrorism is really a war on Muslims? These are problems, questions that need to be addressed.

We're waiting for the answers.

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